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Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Unveiled
mobilemag writes "Sion Power is showing off its new Lithium-Sulfur battery design this week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). SION believes that its new Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries are the answer to the power hungry devices on the market today."
it's "sulfur" now, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry says so.
More battery info here
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
We produce tons of sulfur waste every day simply because it's an abundant element to begin with. It may not smell nice when mixed with other things (as pure sulfur in its crytal form is nearly oderless), but it doesn't pose a significant health risk.
Heavy metals, petrolium distilates, and other exotic chemicals are still the greatest threat to landfill leaching.
All in all, with only 300 charges, I'll keep my fingers crossed they come up with something better.
Quick update on fuel cells:
The biggest problem of putting fuel cells into small electronics is the heat generated. Only the PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) type fuel cell can operate at low temperatures (as low as 80 C). Obviously this is a little too warm, so it isn't really useful for an MP3 player just yet.
PEM fuel cells must operate with hydrogen or use an external reformer to seperate hydrogen from a hydrocarbon. The big thing that prevents PEM fuel cells from becoming commercially viable (like being used in cars) is that a platinum catalyst must be used so most of the research on PEM fuel cells is to reduce the amount of platinum needed.
For Crissakes people, if you own a car you're driving around with a Lead-Acid battery. Guess what type of acid it uses? Sulfuric. As in it has sulfur in it. Does your car smell like farts or rotten eggs? Not unless you're farting in it.
UPS systems also use AGM (absorbed glass mat) lead acid batteries. Don't smell any farts coming out of your UPS, do you?
Likewise, no, your laptop or PDA will not smell because of a battery containing sulfur. You'll have to keep blaming your flatulence on the dog.
Not so insightful... What you probably meant to say was "how many milliamp hours the battery stores", but this is also incorrect. Current-time (mah) is a measure of how long a battery can output a certain current, but this does not let you compare the batteries power to batteries of other voltages. The true measure of how "powerful" these batteries are is power or energy per volume or density depending on what you really care about. power is usually given in watts and energy in watt-hours (for batteries). energy per volume is probably important in cell phones while energy (and power)per mass is probably more important in something like an electric car or maybe a laptop. As for not getting excited because the companies website doesn't mention these details, a quick Google search turns up much of this information. A Lithium Sulfur battery does appear to be significantly better. Its discharge curve (i think thats what you were thinking of) also appears to be relatively flat. This means that it maintains the same
Of course there are many other important factors in a battery other than these such as the shelf life and "memory effect" but in general, this technology does appear to be as exciting as batteries get.
the Ultralife rechargable batteries
have half (max 162 Wh/kg) the energy
density of the new Sion Lithium-Sulphur
cells (300 Wh/kg).
See:
Sion tech description
Ultralife batteries specs sheet
I hate to spoil a joke, but I'm going to use this opportunity to inject some radiation education:
1. Pu-238 is an Alpha Emitter.
2. Alpha particles can't penetrate your skin (or even a sheet of paper) and are only dangerous if they are inhaled.
3. From the EPA: "The isotope, plutonium-238, is not useful for nuclear weapons. However it generates significant heat through its decay process, which make it useful as a power source. Using a thermocouple, a device that converts heat into electric power, satellites rely on plutonium as a power source. Tiny amounts also provide power to heart pacemakers."
Know anyone who's got a pacemaker?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
lol ok by extraordinarily popular demand, here it is, in proper link form!
Ultralife
And the reason why this old article obsoletes these newly unveiled magic technology (specifically talked about within) is in this quote:
"The future of lithium battery technology lies in Li/MnO2, a solid-cathode chemistry. Unlike both Lithium/Sulphur Dioxide (Li/SO2) and Lithium/Thionyl Chloride (Li/SOCl2), which are liquid-cathode chemistries, Li/MnO2 does not suffer from the effects of passivation, which causes liquid-cathode batteries to suffer from a voltage delay phenomenon causing the cell voltage to be depressed when a load is applied, particularly after extended periods of storage with no use. This condition is exacerbated at low temperatures resulting in the possibility that a liquid cathode battery may not start up when called into use. Li/MnO2 batteries, which are inherently safer than the other types of lithium batteries, do not suffer from the voltage delay phenomenon."
Okay, I have been working with Lithium Chemistries in batteries for 4 years now as a member of the UMR Solar Car Team (http://solar42.umr.edu).
First a few things about Lithium based batteries. When they say a cycle life of 300 or 500 cycles that means the 80% thresh hold. In other words at 300 or 500 cycles, the "lifetime" of the battery you will still see 80% capacity when all those cycles are through. That doesn't signify the end of the battery either, we have some LG Chemical Lithium Ions (176 Wh/kg) that are 4 years old and still doing well. The problem is that after 2 years the chemicals inside the battery start reacting and could theoretically internally short, causing a dead battery, fires, or the classic cell phone battery explosion, yes that can happen. For this reason we are going to be disposing of those batteries soon, they pose a chemical hazard, you should also do that after 2 years with your cell phone battery just incase.
In comparison to Nickels, Li batteries are much better 90-95% charge efficient (what you get out compared to what you put in). Nickels range from 60-75%. They are MUCH more energy dense (175 Wh/Kg - 500 Wh/Kg (theoretical limit I think)) while Nickels range in the 75 Wh/Kg range. And oh yeah Lithiums don't get hot, one crucial issue with Nickel based batteries is the end of charge temperature can hit 150+. Also cycle life is better Nickels can get about 200 cycles before they hit the 80% mark, and well that is only if you treat them very nicely. Lithiums are more forgiving with some missuse (just don't over volt them).
So all in all Lithium Chemistries are pretty much the best battery format out there now, and for a while too. Lithium is the most energy dense element after all. This is why everyone is switching over to them for just about any serious work. sure cycle life is low, nothing compared to a Lead Acid, but companies are working on that, hell 5 years ago a lithium cell that lasted 200 cycles was impressive now Kokam sells Lithiums with 500 cycles and still 80% life with a starting capacity of over 200 Wh/Kg, roughly 4 times as energy dense as a Lead Acid.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.